


Defrost

by mercy_angel_09



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Extended Scene, F/M, Friendship, Hurt/Comfort, Just a little bit of Angst, Romance, after she's been an ice queen for 3 episodes, all things considered anyway, awkward moments for all, but a fairly happy ending, getting into Allura's head, he doesn't realize he flirts, inner musings, keith accidentally flirts, the beginnings of crushes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-13
Updated: 2017-09-13
Packaged: 2018-12-27 17:16:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,237
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12085638
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mercy_angel_09/pseuds/mercy_angel_09
Summary: It's not an easy thing to reconcile what you believe with what you actually know.Kallura Month 2017 - Day 13 - "Good-bye"





	Defrost

**Author's Note:**

> I've struggled with most of the Kallura Month prompts but this one jumped right out at me and said "HI, YOU'RE GONNA WRITE FOR ME." So, here we are.

“Zarkon took the bait,” Shiro announced. “He’s got my location. Is everybody in position?”

“We’ve not yet heard from Thace. He was supposed to contact us two vargas ago,” Kolivan said.

“He could have been captured,” Antok suggested.

“Or killed. We need to abort the mission immediately.” Kolivan sounded disappointed yet resolute in his decision. His face was ever stoic, only the slightest flash of emotion crossing his face when he realized that everything they’d been working for had been for nothing.

“Abort?! No! We cannot back away now.” Allura’s voice was firm.

“The Blade of Marmora does not take chances,” Antok explained. “It’s how we’ve survived for so long.”

“It’s held you back. You caution is the reason Zarkon is still in power,” Allura said, scowling at the two Galra.

“We would rather wait than jeopardize everything. Besides, it’s too late to get someone else on the inside,” Kolivan pointed out.

“I’ll do it.” Everyone looked over at Keith in surprise.

“What?!” Allura blurted.

“I’ll sneak onto Zarkon’s ship,” Keith said. “I’m Glara, so I’ll be able to interact with their technology. Pidge, you can rig up one of those pods with a cloaking device, right?”

“Well, yeah,” Pidge answered, her voice soft and uncertain.

“Going onto Zarkon’s ship is a suicide mission,” Kolivan said. “I would never command someone so inexperienced to go on a mission so dangerous.”

“No one’s commanding me,” Keith said, expression and voice hard. “I’m doing it.”

Silence fell over the bridge. Allura’s face hardened even more as she considered both Kolivan and Keith’s words. Then Shiro spoke.

“Pidge, get that pod ready. Keith…let me know when you’re on your way. I’ll give you cover. Shiro out.”

Keith and Pidge headed down to the pod bay, a stretching silence in their wake. Kolivan looked at Allura, disapproval on his face but saying nothing. Antok was inscrutable as ever with his mask still in place. Hunk and Lance were staring at their displays in quiet contemplation, yet Allura could sense the tension radiating off of them. Coran’s expression was one of indecision. Slav was wrapped up in his own head, no doubt calculating Keith’s odds of survival. Which left her, standing at her station, keenly aware that she’d said nothing when a paladin of Voltron volunteered to go to his death.

Volunteered because he was part Galra. Volunteered because he believed that if he died, the team would be better off without him. That she’d be better off without him.

She felt a sharp stab of regret at that. She’d been treating him abominably since he’d come back from the Blade of Marmora’s base and confessed that he had Galra blood. The warm comradery had gone, leaving only icy tolerance in its wake. And it wasn’t as if anything had really changed. Keith was still Keith. The revelation of his Galra heritage had no impact on his status as a paladin of Voltron. It wasn’t as if he would turn into a tyrant overnight. She knew Keith. She knew what he was capable of, and she came to the horrible realization that she was the one who had let him down, not the other way around.

Keith had been honest with them, as soon as he knew for sure. That he had kept it a secret only until he’d been able to confirm his Galra heritage, because if he was wrong he didn’t want to worry anyone.

Despite the initial uncertainty, the rest of the team had accepted him without question. Only she had been treating him differently.  Without any real reason.

“Oh quiznak,” she muttered under her breath as she marched out of the castle’s central command.

She didn’t hurry down to the pod bay, as it gave her a chance to figure out her thoughts regarding the situation. Keith was a paladin of Voltron, brave and true. Sure he could be a little impulsive, but there was no doubt in Allura’s mind that Keith cared for the team. Like her, he’d adopted them as his new family. And family didn’t turn their backs on each other when they needed each other the most.

When Allura finally mustered up the courage to enter the pod bay, Pidge had just finished attaching the cloaking device.

“Okay, the cloaking device is ready to go,” she said as she closed the panel it was installed behind.

“Pidge,” Allura called, her voice echoing slightly in the large room, “may I have a moment with Keith, please?”

Pidge looked between Keith and Allura, an unsettled feeling in the pit of her stomach. Keith’s expression was hard, like he was steeling himself for whatever abuse that Allura would fling his way. Allura also looked tense, though if it was the lingering antagonism because of his Galra heritage or her displeasure that a paladin of Voltron was going on a suicide mission, Pidge didn’t know. “Sure thing. Have all the moments you like.”

Pidge exited the hanger, leaving Allura and Keith alone in a tense silence. When the doors slid shut behind Pidge, Allura took a deep breath and approached him.

His voice was cold and even. “Is there something I can help you with?”

“I…I just wanted to say…the Galra, they’ve done terrible things. Destroyed entire civilizations. They took my family. But, in time, I’ve grown to consider you and the paladins my family. So when I learned you were Galra, I…I didn’t know what to think.” Keith’s face fell, his gaze landing on the floor and shame burning in his eyes. “I wanted to hate you. “

“Allura…It’s-”

“But it’s not you. It’s me. My anger has blinded me for too long.” Before she could overthink what she was about to do, she propelled her body forward and threw herself against him. It was tentative, with her arms between their bodies as a buffer, but it was a beginning. A hug. “I’m so sorry I misjudged you,” she said as Keith gently put his arms around her to hug her back. “You’ve proven that it’s not what’s in your blood. It’s who you are that counts. Please come back to us.”

“I will,” he said softly.

“You swear it? On the Red Lion?”

“I swear, Allura, I’ll come back,” he said as he pulled back so he could look her in the eye. The sharp edges that she had gotten used to since he’d returned with Shiro and Kolivan from the Blade of Marmora’s base had softened. “This isn’t good-bye.”

“It better not be,” she chastised, blinking back tears. “We need you. I need you.”

He looked stunned at that, but then a small smile graced his lips and he leaned over and placed a gentle kiss against her cheek. “I need you, too.”

“Right,” she said, ignoring the sudden explosion of butterflies in her stomach. “Because we’re like family.”

His smile grew. “Yeah. Family.”

“You should…get going. Shiro is waiting for you.”

“Oh, yeah. Um, I’ll be back for Red. Or, you know, Red’ll come for me, depending on how this goes.”

“Don’t you dare joke about this, Keith. You are to come back in one piece. That is an order, paladin.”

He saluted her. “Yes, ma’am.”

She backed away from the pod as Keith climbed in and prepped it for takeoff. Something had definitely shifted between them. Too bad it had taken a near good-bye for it to happen.


End file.
